Entertainment Weekly sat down with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner for a feature interview running in this week’s magazine to discuss the world they inhabit within the Twilight universe, both on screen and off. In today’s preview, the stars open up about the glare of the media spotlight and how its intrusiveness recently led Stewart to compare it to rape — a comment she has since apologized for.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Do you feel more at peace about being in the spotlight these days?KRISTEN STEWART: I just feel more comfortable, more myself, and I feel less bare. I feel much more like nobody can take anything from me. Before, I felt literally like my chest was cracked open and people could just reach in and examine and pick at anything they wanted, and it just freaked me right out.

You got a lot of criticism recently for comparing the intrusiveness of the paparazzi to rape. The comment got blown out of proportion very quickly, and you apologized.STEWART: I’m so sensitive about stuff like that. That is the one subject that means a lot to me. I made one movie directly concerning it [2004's Speak], and I made another one where my character has a horrible history of rape [2010's Welcome to the Rileys]. I talked to a lot of people about it. I used the wrong word. I should have said “violated.” But I’m young and emotional. It’s just the way it goes sometimes. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I just feel like people got so excited once they saw that it was me. It was like, “Sweet! Let’s get her!” And then for the people to exploit it under the guise of being morally upstanding is disgusting — and it embarrassed me because I was a part of it.

Did you see it all unfold and then think, I have to issue an apology?STEWART: No, I was in Korea when it all got bad. My publicist called me and said RAINN had issued this terrible statement.ROBERT PATTINSON: Who’s Rain?STEWART: You know, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.PATTINSON: None of those associations came out and gave a statement [criticizing Kristen] without being called upon by the media first — who were doing it specifically to get hits on their websites. That whole system of Internet journalists, where no one is called to account, is almost entirely about hate. All these people get away with doing it because they have no responsibility to anyone. All they need is to get a salacious headline and people click on it, because it’s easy. And it’s quite good being part of these Twilight films because you have to give so many interviews all the time, you can defend yourself. That’s the only way. All of us stick together, as well. There are so many little nerds behind their computers, on their little blogs.STEWART: See, if I said that? Crucifixion. You can say so much more than me. It’s insane.PATTINSON: That’s not true at all. When did I say anything [controversial]?STEWART: You’re really good, but you could say, “I just took a s***on the Queen’s face,” and people would be like, “Oh, I love him! I love him!”

For more from the three stars of the Twilight movies, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday, June 25.